The former Soviet Union is home to some of the world’s poorest Jews. In some places, food is scarce and bathtubs are a luxury. Entire families live together in a tiny single room, and kids grow up -- literally -- before their parents’ eyes.

On a recent visit to St. Petersburg, young Federation leader Darren Sukonick met one of these families: a mother, a father and two teen daughters, who might not be able to get by without Federation.

“It was heartbreaking to think of these two young women in the shadow of this difficult circumstance, not having the chance to do what we in North America would think of as the most basic of things,” he says. “And it was amazing to see that some of the programs (of Jewish Federation) could help them break out of a situation which wasn’t their making.”